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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Google Diaries

So, when was the last time you googled yourself?

I'll raise my hand, I was doing it yesterday.

I find the stats tab on my blog (it's not public) to be absolutely fascinating. I love checking out where in the world the people who are reading this are. The last little while it's been interesting watching the key words people are finding my blog with as well. They range from the obvious:

digging out and up

digging up and out

up and out blog cassie

To the interesting:

clothing budget woman 60,000 a year

what to do if my wallet is stolen in canada

18007147257 busy

To the downright strange:

i don't wash my face anymore - seriously? That's how you found me?

the year before along - I don't know what this means?

the end of the - what? debt? world? ice cream cone?

I was quite surprised when my name started showing up in people's searches, but I thought it was kind of cool. Then yesterday I noticed that someone had google searched my full name.

wtf?

I only write with my first name, and I've been working on going through and taking my last name down off my recreational internet stuff seeing as more people are reading it. So, seeing my full name typed into a search engine was a little unnerving. Anyone who knows my full name should know if they want to know something about me they can just ask. Who else would be doing it? Then it hit me.

Job recruiters.

You know that blood running cold feeling you get when you realize you may have forgotten something important? I definitely got that.

So I searched myself.

Up popped twitter, with a link to my blog, followed by LinkedIn, a newspaper article interview, a woman in the states, another blogging site, another woman in the states, a page with my parent's address on it from when I lived abroad, and so on and so forth. Surprisingly enough, no Facebook.

It was a quick, if incomplete, snapshot of me. There is nothing I'm ashamed about by any means. The only thing I can see being construed as negative is my financial position, but frankly I don't think money should be a taboo subject. If anything I think getting it out in the open helps take some of the stress out, and facilitates communication with others on how to fix the problem.

So, I feel okay for now. I should have gone through and given myself the search engine thumbs up before I started applying to places, but hind sight is 20/20.

8 comments:

I think recruiters will be pleasantly surprised with your financial dilligence. Any company is focused on their finances. Although your job may not be directly related at least they know if you got promoted into management you would have a good grip on their finances. I googled myself and nothing comes up... lame. My friend was last in a 10km once and now that's the only thing that comes up when you google her... not great for recruitement.

In my job search class we all had to google ourselves. I found some things that shouldn't be attached to my name - a friends business listed under mine, for example.

Be careful - recruiters look ALL THE TIME. Your facebook, twitter, blog, even your school websites. Even if all the info they find is good - less information is better, so they don't form an opinion on you before you have a chance to dazzle them in your interview.

Oh Also - the other commenter up there is right. On wordpress (but not on blogger) you can see the email addresses of the people who comment on your blog. You've commented on mine, and your gmail address pops up. So I know your last name - MWAHAHA.

Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. I didn't know this until I got gmail, and when I first started blogging I was using my personal email until I made a gmail account with my blog name.

I google myself once every few months! Probably because one of my friends was a recruiter and she loves to tell me horror stories. I'm definitely out there - races, school related stuff, linkedin, but FB is on lockdown! And...[clicking over to google myself] my cell is published as a soccer coach, oh no! Well, I now have something to add to my to do list. Thanks!!!

No Daniela, I don't think you're a stalker (are you? lol). I wasn't aware blog authors could see my actual address when I leave comments, thanks for the heads up. I initially created the e-mail address for job hunting. When I wasn't doing much of that, and I started blogging, I just used it. I didn't ever think anyone would ever read my blog!

Jen - I appreciate the compliment :)

Daisy - That's kind of scary that you had a wrong listing :s Definitely something I'll watch for in the future!